At present, vehicles used for waterway transport, i.e., all sorts of vessels, include:
General displacement vessels, which have good stability and can satisfy the demands of large-, medium- or small-tonnage, but due to deep draft, big water resistance and the larger the tonnage is, the deeper the draft is, have high energy consumption so that it is difficult to improve the speed.
Hydrofoil crafts, which have reduced water resistance due to shallow draft so that the speed is improved but have weaker maneuverability, seaworthiness and dirigibility and are difficult to navigate in fast-flowing, shallow watercourse and to navigate steadily in strong wind and big waves.
Hovercrafts, which are free from water resistance so that the speed is improved, but need large power to generate air cushion and have high energy consumption so that it is uneconomical to use them in passenger and cargo transport. In addition, hovercrafts have weak anti-wave performance, and in particular, its advantage disappears under the attack of crosswind.
General planing crafts, which have shallow draft during gliding so that the speed is improved, but adopt a hull bottom of V-type transverse section so as to improve their own course, transverse stability and operating performance, resulting in increased wetted surface to increase frictional resistance, and have big lift force in the bow and smaller lift force in the stern, so that the water surface surge height at the bow increases to increase the resistance, and be sensitive to wave response and have poor anti-wave performance.
Except for the displacement vessels, the large limitation of tonnage is another common weakness for all of the above vessels. In addition, a common water surface transport means in the related art is limited in speed due to its structure form; when the speed is greater than 50 knots, it will generate a phenomenon that the stability becomes worse; if the propulsive power is further increased, not only will the speed not be increased, but it will result in the loss of stability so that the danger of overturning occurs.